About Us

Formed in 2012, the IVRA is the leading international pressure group for vegan rights.

The IVRA is an international network of vegan legal professionals working together to promote veganism in law and to campaign for the international implementation of vegan rights. We are mainly composed of legal professionals but welcome interested non-legal professionals who would like to join our network to support our mission.

People in the Network

Dr Jeanette Rowley

Jeanette founded the IVRA in 2012 as a way of contributing to anti-speciesist discourse. Her PhD centres on the idea that vegans’ right to freedom of conscience brings human rights to a threshold where they intersect with animal rights.

Inspired by the philosophy of otherness developed by Emmanuel Levinas, Jeanette suggests that the legal recognition of vegans, whose claims present the moral standing of nonhuman animals, gives expression to the original duty to respond to suffering, which is entrenched in the idea of human rights. She argues that since the suffering narrative of human rights is grounded by the philosophy of otherness, it should explore the value of veganism in the search for a postmodern principle of inclusive justice.

Greg McFarlane

Greg has been involved with the animal rights and vegan movements for the last 10 years and is currently a director of Vegan Australia. His focus is on reducing the barriers to veganism by campaigning for systemic changes which make veganism more mainstream, convenient, accessible and appealing. The work of the IVRA is in alignment with this.

Greg has been vegan for 20 years. His favourite quote is the Edgar's Mission motto "If we could live happy and healthy lives without harming others... why wouldn't we?"

Ralf Müller-Amenitsch

Ralf Müller-Amenitsch is a German lawyer that works in his own law office in Berlin. He is specialized in labour, social and family law . He was born in 1963 in Bavaria, is married and studied in Bonn, Gemany and Lausanne, Switzerland . He is the author of the first German book on vegan law that has been published in 2016 under the name "Vegan im Recht", and co-authored the Austrian version of the book, published in 2017.

He supported the work of the IVRA since 2016 and became the German representative for the organisation the same year. He co-organised the first International symposium on the right to a plant-based diet in 2016, Berlin, Germany. He also supports PETA-Germany in national and international conferences on vegan topics.

Since 2018, he is a lecturer on vegan law and animal rights.

Lucas

Lucas has been involved with the IVRA since 2012, taking responsibility for the organisation's I.T. (including the IVRA website, blog, all graphic design & photography, etc.) and admin.

He believes that vegans have the right to manifest their ethical convictions in their daily lives and that promoting their legal equality can help in the struggle for animal liberation.

Dr Gábor T. Fodor

Dr Gábor T. Fodor represents the IVRA in Hungary. He is an attorney at law, focusing mainly on labour law issues. He is an author of labour law related articles in Hungarian and in English, his works are published regularly in different specialized papers. He recently played a critical role in the establishment and legal recognition of the Hungarian Vegan Association.

Nuno M. Alvim, MSc

Nuno Alvim is the president of the Portuguese Vegetarian Association. He has a master degree in Criminology.He´s been engaged in active lobbying and campaigning for promoting veganism and animal rights. He was the main organiser of a petition in Portugal that has resulted in legislation for the provision of strict vegetarian food in public canteens.

Dina Aherne

Dina is an Animal Rights Advocate and public speaker, who raises awareness about the realities of the meat and dairy industry through the organisation of national campaigns, the provision of talks and the hosting of vigils at slaughterhouses via The Save Movement. She is a non-practicing solicitor, having left full time practice to concentrate on the vegan movement. She believes that every nonhuman animal deserves to live free from exploitation and sees Veganism as the least that human beings can do for their fellow nonhuman animal inhabitants. She is a strong believer that Veganism must be acknowledged and accepted in its totality in law if we as a species are to move away from the currently dominant and detrimental speciesist behaviour that is not only destroying sentient lives, the planet and our health.

Matthew Overton

Matthew is half Welsh and half English. He will graduate this year, 2018, from the University of Bristol, with an undergraduate degree in Law. As part of Matthew's final year studies, he has produced ground breaking research in veganism and law. He is the treasurer of the Animal Law Society of the University of Bristol and the Student Liaison for the IVRA.

In his free time, Matthew enjoys rugby and hiking.

Edwina Bowles

Edwina is an animal protection lawyer, which predominantly involves working within the field of public law. She is also a trustee for the UK Centre of Animal Law (A-law) where she set up and now manages the student group.

Petr Kudelka

Petr Kudelka studied law, human rights and jazz guitar, currently working for the Vegan Society of Austria, coordinating a project on the human rights of vegans. He also works on human rights implications of community policing as well as privacy and data protection. He is interested in animal rights, drug policy and psychedelic research and is a passionate musician and meditator.